Steele High School - Annual Yearbook (Dayton, OH)

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Page Twenty-Six STEELE MAGNET efficiently and cheaply. Courses are not given for fostering the im- provement of existing processes and industries alone however, but con- siderable training is also given for developing initiative towards dis- coveries leading to new industries and their perfection through research work. Therefore, it is obvious that there must be an enormous Held for this line of work in the United States, a country of such extensive natural resources. A great many of our industries are practically in almost a primary condition, and applying science to these will undoubtedly bring about rapid progress. As an example of what efiiciency can be obtained from using sciences in industries, we have in our own city the National Cash Register Company, and the Delco. These concerns, with many chemical engineers in their employment, have built up enormous busi- nesses by perfecting their output by scientific means. To prepare men for the consta.nt demand for men to create and operate such industries that are based on and require chemical principles, is the function of the courses in chemical engineering, which are now so popula.r in our tech- nical schools and universities. UI DJ W MARK TWAIN AS A CHARACTER ARTIST CHRISTIAN VAN RIPER ARK TWAIN was once asked why it was that he could portray character with such remarkable accuracy. Answering in his characteristic manner, he said, Well, you see, during the early part of 1ny life I was so poor that I hardly ever got a square meal, so I just a.te character. And that, truly, was the secret of his success. As a boy in Missouri, it was his delight to watch the steamboats on the Mississippi, and his greatest ambition was to become some day a deck-hand, for at that time he did not aspire to that lofty position of ship's pilot. But at last the chance came when he was apprenticed as a cub pilot. Here he was thrown in consta.nt conta.ct with all kinds of 1-ivermen, and though he was not aware of it at the time, was absorbing the ways, the customs, and speech of his companions. But then the Civil War broke out and it came as a distinct shock to him, for, as he tells us 1a.ter, he had confidently expected to be a pilot for the rest of his life. Commerce, however, was now at a standstill on the river, and Mark Twain was out of employment. Soon a.fter this, his brother received a political appointment in the West and took him along as an under-secretary. Now, if ever, came the opportunity to eat character. This was in the boom times, and people from the East, North, and South, together with the few Westerners already there, were all striving to begin life over again in a new country. To complete this education was the fact that Mark Twain, at this time even, had no notion of authorship. To go and live in certain surroundings that one may be-

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STEELE MAGNET Page Twenty-Five four hours, and transporting troops at the rate of eighty thousand a day. Between the troop trains, ammunition and supply trains were sent, and on the other tra.cks through the city the prisoners and wounded passed through. The prisoners were almost all wounded and were in a Very sorry condition. To see them made a person shudder at the horrors of war. The wounded were happy and gay at the thought of going to the war and getting home without being killed. They were also ha.ppy at the thought of seeing their families. One of the most amusing sights in Dresden was when the Germans discovered a spy in their midst. The spy usually ran and the people got so close to him that the military authorities would have at hard time determining who was the spy and who was not. In one case the spy was a man in nurse's costume, and he jumped into the river where so many people jumped in after him that in the confusion he was able to get away. VVe were in Dresden three weeks, and then left for Berlin, a dis- tance of a hundred and ten miles, and it took us thirteen hours to get there. In Berlin the only change the war had made that we noticed was that women drove the taxicabs and street cars and the young boys cleaned the streets. We left Berlin and went to Holland, a three-hundred-mile ride which took us twenty-four hours. On this trip we sat up, six people in one compartment. In Holland we were fortunate enough to get a boat for America, landing in New York just six weeks after the war had started. CHEMICAL ENGINEERING HENRY BLAU HERE is probably no greater progress in this era than the devel- opment of chemical industries. The primary ca.use for this decided advance is the change from old processes based on tra- ditions and kindred reasons, to procedures based on the intelligent a.ppli- cation of modern scientihc principles. But, for the intelligent application of science, a man of skill and training is needed, and such trained men for chemical industries are called chemical engineers. The training of a chemical engineer can be divided into four deinite groups, namely, chemistry, mechanics, business methods, and chemical engineering itself. Under the head of chemistry, the student is drilled in the fundamentals of chemistry and also inorganic, organic, analytical, and industrial chemistry. The mechanics studied include mechanical drawing, mechanisms, applied mechanics, and heat engineering, while the business methods treat with economics, business law, etc. The chem- ical engineering group is undoubtedly the most important, although it is really a combination of mechanics a.nd chemistry. The courses under this head deal chieiiy with determining how various chemical reactions can best be accomplished commercially and with the construction of devices and apparatus by means of which the result ca.n be obtained most

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STEELE MAGNET Page Twenty-Seven come familiar with them, is a favorite trick of the author 5 but still there is not that feeling of absolute equality, because the author is not striving after the same ends that his companions are. With Mark Twain it was different 5 he was one of their number. Not until he had returned to the East did he consider his experience in the light of so much capital from which to draw an income. But when he did, the world was given one of its best delineations of American life. Perhaps his best-known work is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In this book Tom is not the description of one boy, but of several known by Mark Twain in his childhood. At first one might think that this would spoil the character, but it only serves to increase the life-like nature since the reader, if he were ever a boy, will surely recognize some trait of real boyishness. For instance, who has not nursed in solitude a broken heart, wished himself dead, and then wondered if mother and the rest would not grieve their eyes out for not appreciating such a noble but misunderstood lad? But nature does not allow the spirit to part so readily from the body, and after a time sends little snatches of more nour- ishing food for meditation, even to the disgust of the would-be martyr. Or perhaps the reader can remember some Becky Thatcher for whom he would have taken the severest iiogging and have been glad of the chance. But, mayhap, he was of sterner stuif. Then, too, with Tom Sawyer he would have liked to sail the Spanish Main with skull and cross-bones Iioating before him. The companion book of Tom Sawyer is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Here the character is practically reversed, for the hero aspires not to the emotional, for the commonplace was good enough for him. This very easily fits in with the boy, who was one of the ignorant ffwhite trash of the South. Just the same, we find the philosophy of a sage often proceeding from his lips all unconsciously, and when we hear it we are reminded that we can learn something from the humblest per- son on earth. Take, for example, the case of Huck and Jim, the run- away, on the raft. After wearing himself out with grief and exertion dur- ing a fog, Jim is overjoyed to see again his friend Huck, but the latter makes him believe he has dreamed it all. Then according to the preva- lent negro superstitious, he proceeds to interpret the dream, embellish- ing it highly to suit his fancy. When he had finished, Huck pointed to a broken oar, and demanded to know how he accounted for that. As soon as it dawned on Jim that he had been the victim of a cruel joke, he silently took himself to the little Wigwam on the raft in shame. Then, to use Huck's words, It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger, but I done it and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. Can you find anywhere a truer picture of the courage it ta.kes to acknowledge one's faults, or the peace of mind afterward? One more illustration from this book: There have been those, though their number is rapidly diminishing, who have held that one's, conscience is infallible and that it will dictate the true course to follow Whether educated or not. Be it as it may, Huck Ends himself in the middle of the Mississippi helping a runaway slave to secure his liberty.